I find myself committing to cooking three meals a day for a small family, myself included. I have never taken on this responsibility before. Although I've graduated from a good professional cooking school many, many moons ago, have been cooking professionally in several categories, and have been teaching cooking classes to the general public for many years, I had never cooked regularly for a family.
I wanted to see for myself what this really entails. What is it like to feed real people, not self-styled gourmands? How can I work at a non-food job all day, then come home and cook a good dinner? Breakfasts get mighty repetitive. Lunchboxes often consist of leftovers with some ad-ons.
On the whole, I've managed to keep this commitment pretty well, for about a year. My eaters usually say they like the results. Often, they love the results. Occasionally there's a recipe that just doesn't work out, but they eat it anyway, 'cause they're hungry, 'cause they know they've got a pretty good deal going, and 'cause it will be better tomorrow.
The meals we eat would be nicer if they were better balanced, more complete. I buy salad stuff, but often I don't serve a salad because I think I'm too tired, or something. Or if I do, it is just greens with oil and vinegar. This is not such a bad thing, as I am trying to gently guide the rest of the household away from goopy bottled salad dressings dollopped (there's a nice onomatopoetic word!) on top of iceberg lettuce out of the bag.
Last night's dinner is a case in point. I had a cauliflower waiting to be used up,and a sick person's request for soup to take into account. We briefly flirted with the idea of going to East Ocean for dinner, but I decided to make the soup instead. Used up the last of my chicken stock, too, so now its an emergency.
Had a large can of salmon burning a hole in my pantry, and a recipe from somewhere for a salmon something that I changed into salmon patties, like crab cakes only cheaper.
That was dinner: cauliflower soup and salmon cakes. See what I mean about balance? Could have had a salad, but it was late. However, the good news is that the salmon cakes were a surprise HUGE hit. We all scarfed them down. So much for lunch today!
That meal would have been better balanced with a salad, and some fruit for dessert.
